Drive for 1 Million

The High Holiday Operation Isaiah food drive could pass 1 million pounds of food collected next year after celebrating its 25th anniversary by bringing in 88,139 pounds of food at synagogues

Kyle Waide (right), the president and CEO of the Atlanta Community Food Bank, joins the 2015 Operation Isaiah chairwoman, Nancy Canter Weiner, and Mark Weiner at Ahavath Achim’s Operation Isaiah food collection shortly before Yom Kippur. AA contributed 60,139 pounds of food to this year’s drive.

from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur this year.

The food goes to the Atlanta Community Food Bank and should provide 73,449 meals to people in need.

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The food drive, launched by Ahavath Achim Synagogue in 1990 to follow the prophet Isaiah’s prescription to “share your bread with the hungry,” has collected 908,474 pounds of food in total over the years.

“We as the Jewish community recognized that we choose to observe the command to fast, whereas there are people who are fasting every day without that choice because they do not have food to eat,” said Nancy Canter Weiner, the 2015 Operation Isaiah chairwoman. “The idea of Operation Isaiah was born to help others put food on their table when we do not have food on ours.”

This year’s amount included 60,139 pounds collected at AA alone.